How is it that I am sitting here at the computer to write a quick recap and it is already October 30th? Where did October go?!?  

I can hardly believe it.  

The month has gone by SO fast.

I had all the hopes of being organized, productive, and super fun this month …. The organized and productive didn’t go so well, but hopefully we had some fun time together as a family.

We just got back from a week long trip back to Utah.  Charlie got a deer tag several months ago and so we knew that we would be coming back for the hunt.

We woke the kids up very early on Saturday and drove the entire 15 hours straight.  The drive went very well.  Fortunately our kids are good travelers and between movies, books, mad libs, and snacks, we were able to do the whole drive with only a few stops.  I am so grateful for that.

Sadie’s Baptism

The highlight of the trip was Sadie’s baptism.  She turned 8 years old a week before the trip.  The timing worked out perfectly and we were able to do her baptism in Utah so she could be surrounded by most of her family and old friends.  It was wonderful and we are so grateful for all of the support we received.  We are also so grateful for Sadie and her choice to be baptized.

Fun in Utah

The next few days were spent with Charlie hunting in the mountains. His dad was able to go with him for a couple of the days! Meanwhile, the kids and I tried to cram in as many activities with family and friends as we could.

We played with friends in Cedar Hills, had dinner with my grandparents and did a musical performance for them, went to the aquarium with cousins, dressed up for my sister’s yearly Halloween party, ate lunch at the Thanksgiving Point Deli, had a freezing cold Zupas picnic near Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon, went to the planetarium, went to the BYU store, went to Bricks and Minifigs, got In n Out, and went to a trunk or treat with the Hunt family cousins.  It was a busy week!

Halloween

It’s always hard to come back after a vacation and get back into the normal routine.  The kids had a hard time getting up and going to school.  No one wanted to start class and homework again.  But at least tomorrow is Halloween!  The holidays are always fun even if Halloween isn’t a break from school.  It’s fun to get dressed up, eat fun food, and carve pumpkins.  

Halloween is going to be a little different for us this year though.  We are missing our suburb neighborhood.  Trick or Treating in the Cedars was amazing!  I always had so much fun walking around the neighborhood and visiting with friends and neighbors.  The kids would come home with way too much candy, but then loved laying it all out on the carpet and organizing it.  This year we don’t have a neighborhood.  We have three neighbors and they are far away.  We might take the kids up into town, but it feels different when I don’t know anybody.  Maybe we’ll just stay home.  It’s not like my kids need any more candy.  But that feels kind of sad for some reason.  Just because we live in the country doesn’t mean that we have to say goodbye to all of our fun traditions.  It just means things might look a little different.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Hunt Family Halloween Traditions

Here’s some of our favorite Halloween traditions.  And we have been able to continue most of these, even living in the country.

1. Decorating the house with our predominately homemade decorations. Check out some of our homemade bats here and some other stuff here.
2. Harry Potter Dinner! Post to come 🙂
3. Pumpkin food!  Cookies, bread, muffins, pancakes, waffles…. We love it! We really loved this pumpkin pancake recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction. You can get it here.
4. Haws Halloween party (my sister always throws as fun party at her house; we were able to go since we were in Utah)
5. Carving and/or painting pumpkins
6. Mummy dogs dinner
7. Halloween books (we just go to the library and get a bunch of picture books from the Halloween section)
8. Halloween movies, check out Mummy Daddy, a Seastrand family classic. You can watch it here.
9. *A new tradition* Seastrand Family Halloween Film Festival.  My brother Zach came up with this idea. You can check out his instagram here.  Anyone can make and submit a short Halloween film.  Here’s the link to our film! Brick or Treat!

It was a pretty good month.  I like October.  

As Anne of Green Gables says, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” -Lucy Maud Montgomery

Have a Happy Halloween!

~ Rachel